Miami, VA

It may not be Front Door Miami on Emory Dr., but I think these dogs have found a pretty good sunny spot here in VA.

This is what the pooches do while Marshall naps...sure wish I could join them, but someone has to do some work around here!!

What happened to my pants??

This is a picture of what happens when Mom puts 18 month old pants on a just-turned-one-year-old (and doesn't adjust the waistband!).

Marshall was hanging out in the pack-n-play while I vaccuumed dog hair in the house. One of the times I checked on him, I was surprised to see him standing with his pants around his ankles -- opps! Guess I'll have to tighten that waistband!

Ok, so it isn't that funny to y'all because I'm a little slow on the draw with the camera and missed the shot of him standing up with his pants around his ankles. On the other hand, I sure have posted a lot lately and those of you who care should be happy about the wealth of pictures of our little cutie!

Finally...

Finally opening birthday presents!!! Poor Marshall. There was a big delay on the opening of family presents. After his big party last weekend, it seemed we had a nonstop week and it was too hard to find a time when we were all together and Marshall was awake and up the the task. Here are a few pictures of the fun. Thanks for all the goodies, everyone.

Not sure who likes the baby armadillo more...

Marshall heard it was fun to fall off of boxes of Little People so he thought he'd try...didn't work, he just sat there in the super cute sweater Daddy got him in Peru.

Thanks for helping, Fado!

Story Time

Just wanted to share a couple of cute (in my humble opinion) photos of Marshall and his Daisy dog. He was busy reading one of his birthday gift books (thanks again, Williamsons!) and I guess the activity on the bear hunt just wore poor Daisy out.

"Okay, Daisy, I'll read you a book."

"Wake up, I didn't finish reading the story yet!"

Fado, of course, was not far away - sleeping safely on her comfy dog bed.

Party Time!

Marshall's 1st Birthday Party was today. We had a bit of a puppy theme - big surprise! Dog bones on his cake, bone cookies as party favors, hot dogs for lunch and puppies helping clean up the cake and open gifts. Marshall had a great time and found out he loves cake and ice cream...then woke up tonight about 15 minutes after he went to bed with a bit of a belly ache. Too much cake, perhaps? As I write this, he's sleeping soundly so I think all is well.

A few random shots of the day...

Oh yeah, and I loved Aunt Erica's picture idea so much that I did my own version with a random selection of Baby Marshall pics for decoration.

CAKE!!!

He's never even had a bite of cake before, yet the sight of it makes him laugh with joy!

And once he takes a bite...pure love!

After all that cake, he had to take a break.


Then on to opening presents. Thank goodness Sahara and Daisy were there to help!

Finally, Marshall's guests helped themselves to gingerbread bones and milkbones when they were on their way back to their own dog houses.

Big thanks to Zannie and Pops who came up for the weekend to "visit" which means help us out with the projects around the house, build a fence for the dogs, organize the house and take care of Marshall.

After all that partying, there's nothing better than relaxing with a Grandma...I mean, a Zannie!

Now, I'm off to bed because tomorrow is his real birthday and we get to celebrate even more.

Ski Outing

Actually, there was no skiing on the outing, but there were slopes, snow and cool head gear. The other morning David decided to take Marshall on a drive to Pennsylvania to check out a ski resort. It is about an hour and a half from here and he thought it might be a fun thing for us to do one weekend, but wanted to take a look before we planned a weekend around it. Since he had the day off and I had a mountain of things to do here, Daddy decided to take his boy to the slopes. Looks like they had fun - David took a few self portraits and then some of Marshall at the commissary where they stopped on the way home to restock our dwindling supplies -- what a dream day for me!

As for the head gear, David bought the cutest hat for Marshall while he was in Peru. I couldn't believe how adorable it was when he showed me.

The hat is so cute it even makes ol' Daisy dog look like she's ready to hit the slopes...or yodel.

By the way, Erica, that is the Ergo David is using (in the top photo). He loves it! At first he just thought it was a good thing for me to have, but more and more he wants to use it (instead of stroller) when we go somewhere and he wants to carry Marshall. Thanks again!!

Bath Time

In our house, Daddy is the primary bath giver. This works great for everyone because he lets Marshall do more fun stuff than I do, it gives the boys some time together at the end of the day and I get 10 minutes (ok more than that really) alone to finish cooking dinner, clean up the kitchen, pick up toys or have a glass of wine (yeah, right!). Daddy has things totally under control and I am never called in for back up...until last night...but then it was just to bring the camera.

Hello my baby, hello my darling, hello my ragtime gal....

or

Hmm...the bottom of this bowl is so interesting.

Top of the morning to ya.

Look at those eyelashes!